Opening and blending machinery for textile materials



Sept. 8, 1959 G. DAKlN ET AL OPENING AND BLENDING MACHINERY FOR TEXTILE MATERIALS Filed Deo. '7, 1955 x lllrl, i

United States Patent Office 2,902,723 Patented Sept. 8, 1959 OPENING AND BLENDING MACHINERY FOR TEXTILE MATERIALS Geoffrey Dalrin, Cheadle, and Thomas William Owen, Manchester, England, assignors to The British Cotton Industry Research Association, Manchester, England, a British association Application December "l, 1955, Serial No. 551,692

9 Claims. (Cl. ISL-89) This invention concerns opening, blending, and lapforming machines for use in the textile industry.

Scutchers and other opening, blending and lap-forming machines for cotton or other fibres may include a beater, which may be a striker cylinder, three-bladed beater, or Kirschner beater according to requirements, embraced by an upper close-fitting cover and a lower working grid. They may also include suction cage means for Vcondensing the fibres, after removal from the surface of the beater, into a lap.

The broad object of the present linvention is to provide a machine capable of an improved blending and mixing action on the fibrous material passing therethrough, and of improved lap formation where'such lap is required.

It has been found that such an improved blending and mixing action can be achieved, in accordance with the present invention, in an opening, blending or lap-forming machine, by providing, a beater compartment therefor having a rotary beater cylinder with a substantially completely closed periphery, the whole, or a series of spaced segments of which has projecting spikes or needles for opening the fibrous material fed thereto, and an upper cover which is spaced, except in the feed region, at a substantial distance from the periphery of the beater.

The spacing of the upper cover by a substantial distance from the beater has been found to play an -important part in ensuring that the beater is substantially completely stripped each revolution.

In lap-forming machines, with which the present nvention is especially concerned, it has been found that the addition of a baille -is desirable, between the cylinder and the suction cages.

Study of the aerodynamic forces on fibres in various types of air streams have led to the conclusion now set out.

In a non-turbulent air stream confined in a convergent channel the linear air velocity increases -along the length of the channel and the `aerodynamic forces on a fibre in such an air stream are such that the fibre becomes oriented parallel to the `direction of the airflow. Conversely, fibres in a divergent non-turbulent air stream are constrained to lie in a plane perpendicular to the direction of the airflow. If, in such a divergent air stream, there exists also a velocity gradient in some direction transverse to the direction of airflow, fibres in the air stream will be constrained to lie perpendicular to the direction of this transverse velocity gradient as well as to the direction of the airflow, and thus will all lie parallel to each other. Now the arrangement of the usual scutcher is such that the `air ilow from the beater to the cages diverges from the narrow space between beater and grid bars to the cages themselves, and also, due to the presence of the side walls and to the way in which the cages are exhausted there is, in the region between beater and cages, a transverse velocity gradient perpendicular to the axis of the beater. If therefore the air ilow in this region were non-turbulent, the aerodynamic forces would be such that fibres and groups of libres stripped from the beater would become oriented substantially parallel to each other and to the axis of the beater and would be deposited on the cages oriented in a direction perpendicular to the length of the lap. The resultant lap would have very little strength, and would not unroll satisfactorily. In the conventional scutcher this undesirable orientation of the fibres transversely to the length of the lap is partially offset by the presence of small regions of turbulent air ilow and also by the large-scale turbulent effects lin the central region approximately mid-way between the beater and the cages. These latter large-scale turbulent effects, although desirable in that they assist in the production of a coherent lap, are undesirable in that they make diicult the production of a lap of uniform thickness across its width. Similar effects arise in other machines where fibres are `moving under conditions of divergent air ilow. It is an important additional object of this invention to remove these large-scale turbulent effects while retaining the small regions of turbulent air ilow.

This additional yobject may be achieved by providing a baille adjacent the opposite side of the beater cylinder to the feed mechanism to divide the airstream from the lower portion of the beater into two parts. When such a baille is used some of the fibres removed from the beater pass below the `baffle `and the remainder above it, the two streams being combined beyond the baille, and. the fibres passing forward on to suction cages before subsequent formation into a lap orto a, subsequent machine. The shape and disposition of the baille are preferably such that the fibres rare approximately equally divided between the two air streams this giving improved mixing and blending, and so that the Ybaille occupies vat least part of the central mid-way region in which the high speed beater would otherwise form a region of turbulent air ilow which in turn would give rise tothe considerable turbulence which makes diillcult the Vproduction of a uniform lap. Transverse movement of fibresin the region between beater and cages is therefore prevented. v

In one very effective arrangement, used on a scutcher, having two suction cages disposed one above the other, the baille is triangular in section, the side facing the beater being perpendicular, and the other, lower, side being approximately in the tangent plane from the bottom of the beater to the centre of the upper suction cage. The highest -point of the baille is approximately level with the top of the beater. The upper cover, in this example, is spaced by approximately half the radius of the beater from the beater.

l The invention will now be described further by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which the single ligure is a longitudinal sectional view of the beater compartment of a finisher scutcher.

Finisher scutchers are well known in the textile art and in the interests of clarity and the avoidance of detail having no direct relevance to the present invention only the beater compartment and the associated parts have been shown in the drawings. Whether applied to a scutcher or not the only new features necessary to the effective performance of the invention are now described.

The beater compartment is bounded by side walls 11, upper cover 12, lower cover 13, grid bars 14, pedal feed arrangement 15, and rotary suction cages 16, 17.

At the forward end of the compartment a beater cylinder 18 is rotatably mounted on a horizontal axis transversely of the compartment. The beater 1S has a closed periphery on which are mounted six equispaced arcuate bases 19 each carrying the usual spikes 20. The extent of the spiked regions is such tha they cover collectively at least half of the cylinder periphery.

The upper cover 12, which commences above the feed arrangement first extends upwardly `and then passes horizontally over the upper part of the beater at a substantial distance therefrom, roughly equal to half the radial measurement ofthe beater cylinder 18. The basic beater cylinder radius in the embodiment being described is seven and a half inches, the radius to the points of the spikes being nine inches. The spacing of the upper cover 12 from the highest point reached by the spikes is preferably three and a half inches, but can be between about three inches and four and a half inches. The best distance in any particular case can easily be determined by experiment.

A baie 21, extending the full width of the compartment, and supported by the side walls 11 and any suitable additional structural members, Vis located adjacent that part of the periphery of the beater opposite to the feed arrangement 1S. The baie is preferably adjustable in position, especially in height.

The baiiie 21 is generally triangular in section its lower bounding plane lying in the tangent plane from the centre of the upper cage 17 to the bottom of the periphery of the beater 18. The face of the baille 21 nearest to the beater is closest to the beater at its lowest point 21a (at the end of an extension to this corner of the triangular formation) 4where it is conveniently from a quarter to a half an inch from the beater periphery, and diverges therefrom to the top of the bafiie which is level with the upper portion of the periphery of the beater.

In use the fibrous material is struck down by the beater 18 on to the grid bars 14 and carried forward by the suction of the cages 16, 17. The disposition of the upper cover 12 and baie 21 ensures that all the ibres are removed from the beater each revolution, Vintimately mixed and condensed on to the cages so as to form a coherent and even lap.

It is found .that improved blending and lap formation are achieved by the scutcher described. Furthermore a reduction in the opening treatment on the material prior to passing in to the scutcher is possible substantially without undesirable loss of quality in the finished lap.

In machines other than scutchers arrangements according to the invention may be'similar to that just particularl1y described, although of course in such machines the bres lwill usually pass not to suction cages, but to subsequent processing machines.

The provision of a batle will normally still further improve the improved mixing and blending achieved by the combination of beater and raised upper cover.

We claim:

1. In a lap-forming machine, a beater compartment, a rotary beater cylinder therein having a substantially completely closed periphery, projecting spikes on the periphery of said beater cylinder for opening fibrous material fed thereto, an upper cover which is spaced, except in the region where brous material is fed to the beater cylinder, at a substantial distance from the periphery of said beater cylinder, and a baie at that side of the beater cylinder where the iiibrous material is stripped therefrom, shaped to dene two divergent paths for the air stream carrying said iibrous material stripped from said beater and disposed to occupy the normal region of high turbulence adjacent the beater cylinder.

2. A lap-forming machine as set forth in claim 1 in which said bae is adapted to divide a fibre-laden air stream from the bottom of said beater cylinder when in operation into two approximately equal parts.

3. A lap-forming machine as set forth in claim 2, including cage means comprising ltwo rotary suction cages disposed one above the other at the rearward end of said compartment for receiving opened bers from the beater cylinder, in which said baffle is of generally triangular shape in section and extends over the whole Width of the compartment, asubstantial part of its height, and Vinto the region midway between the beater cylinder and the suction cages, the front face of the baile and the adjacent periphery of the beater cylinder being divergent in the direction of rotation of the beater cylinder, and the other lower, side being approximately in the tangent plane from the bottom of the beater cylinder to the centre of the upper suction cage.

4. A lap-forming machine as set forth in claim 3 in which the distance of said upper cover from the beater cylinder periphery is approximately equal to half the radial dimension of said beater cylinder.

5. A lap-forming machine as set forth in claim 3 in which the lower edge of said bae is forwardly extended to a position very close to the beater cylinder periphery.

6. The combination dened in claim 1 wherein said paths are initially mutually divergent and thereafter come together at a point beyond said bae.

7. The combination defined in claim 1 wherein said spikes are arranged on a plurality of arcuate segments carried by said beater cylinder at the periphery thereof, said segments extending throughout at least the greater part of said beater periphery.

8. The combination dened in claim 1, and grid bars arranged below said region where brous material is fed to said beater cylinder.

-9.'The combination defined in claim 1 wherein said baiiie is formed with a substantially vertical front opposite said beater cylinder. i

References Cited in the ijle of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 13,614 Arneson et al. Oct. 2, 1855 375,362 Kitson Dec. 27, 1887 802,114 Reagan Oct. 17, 1905 1,310,545 Rushton July 22, 1919 1,593,747 Brckner July 27, 1926 2,601,381 Freeman et al. June 24, 1952 2,703,441 Langdon .et al. Mar. 8, 1955 

